Professor Margaret Terry Orr Joins the Faculty

After
five years as a term Associate Professor in the Educational
Administration Program, Margaret Terry Orr was hired this year by the
College to fill an open tenure-track position in that program.

Orr's
research covers various areas in improving students' school experiences
and performance. "Years ago I did a lot of work on drop-outs and wrote
a book called Keeping Students in School," Orr noted. Before
coming to Teachers College, she worked at the Academy for Educational
Development as a Senior Program Officer. At the Academy, she directed a
national evaluation of the federal initiative, Youth Fair Chance. That
initiative explored a process to integrate educational, recreational
and vocational services for kids at a community level. She is currently
completing a book on the results of that evaluation.

Since
coming to Teachers College, Orr's research has been focused on
school-to-work transitions and relationships between secondary schools
and community colleges. More recently, through NCREST, Orr is directing
an evaluation of the William Penn Foundation's support of
Philadelphia's Children Achieving initiative. The four-year evaluation,
which is in its second year, is looking at how two clusters of schools
use additional funding and resources and how those uses affect students.

Orr
teaches courses in Organizational Behavior, Qualitative Research
Methods, and Action Research. "Action Research is applying research
methodology to real-life problems and using tools to explore possible
solutions," Orr explained. In other words, not trying to guess about
the source of a problem, but actually looking into it before taking
action. A mother of four boys ages 4 through 9, Orr says parents may do
action research all the time without even realizing it. "I train
education administrators in using it because it is good in messy,
complex problems," she added.

While she devotes her full
attention to her work when she is working and her children when she is
home, Orr says that being the mother of four independent boys adds
insight to her research. "They help me get a new perspective on schools
as a parent-consumer," she explained. The boys, in turn are fascinated
with the idea that adults go to school and that their mother teaches
school principals. "They like the idea that adults can be learners,
too" she noted.